The Longest Weeks

It's been a very, very long two weeks, full of deadlines and surprise/emergency projects, two classes, missed meetings, insomnia, panicking students and lots and lots of venting and anger from multiple directions. Everyone's nerves are frayed, and all I really want to do is stay home and sleep for a week.

Even gaming sounds too much like work right now.

For the last three days I've eaten lunch in my car, with the windows rolled down a bit. Funny how a car can feel like a hothouse even in 40-degree weather if the sun's out. For that matter, it's funny how a couple of 40-degree days with sunshine feel like a heatwave after the winter we've had. Today I even went for a drive over lunch, just to get away.

The sun is helping a little. Will is also trying very hard to keep me from crashing; I still find it a little bewildering how well we balance each other. I've also watched the new OK Go video about four times. I'm not the world's biggest fan of their music, but I have to admit this and the treadmill video are pretty amazing -- and handy when you just need to unfocus for a bit.



We were amused to see HIM as the featured artist on X-Box live today, as well. I love them dearly, but they really don't strike me as a band that would be popular amongst the XBL set. [Side note: The HIM pack for Rock Band was labled "01", so that may mean there are more in the future. Hopefully with some of the older songs?]

Time to try that sleeping thing again. But before I do:

Okay, week: you have two days to make up for the last 10. You have been warned.

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Queen of Crows on Sale

Psst.

I am told there's a GM's Day Sale going on in ebook land. What does this mean to you? Why, it means The Queen of Crows is available at 25% off through Sunday, March 7.

So! If you've been debating whether to pick up the story, now's a good time to do so. Support your favorite independent artists -- at about $3.75, it's both cheaper than a Starbuck's grande caramel macchiato, and more fulfilling. ;)

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The Queen of Crows: Available 3/1

Today, The Queen of Crows was unleashed on an unsuspecting world. (I don't mean you, of course. You are obviously the handsomest and cleverest of all pandas, suspecting things left and right, hither and yon! It must be so, if you are perusing Monica's blogs over breakfast, and chasing down your evening snack with my own humble little scribblepad.)

But what is The Queen of Crows?, ask the poor, confused pandas who have just wandered in from the bamboo forest.  It is, of course, a digital-release short story by my good friend Monica Valentinelli. The story is full of magic and bones and fire and revenge, set on the eve of the real-life horror known as the Navajo Long Walk, and it is delicious.

In addition to the story, Monica has packed a selection of other goodies into the PDF: an original portrait by artist Leanne Buckley, author's notes on the story inspiration and her concerns on writing historical fiction based in another culture, a brief discussion about the main character, a crash course on her Violet War setting, and more.

Plus, you get my fabulous cover! And interior layout. And editing. Yes. So be a good panda and go download The Queen of Crows, won't you?

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Anatomy of Kaiju

No, not Steve (god, Steve!).  The other kaiju. Mythic fiction author and editor Midori Snyder posted an article on her blog this morning about Yōkai Daizukai, an illustrated encyclopedia of Japanese monsters. Intrigued, I checked out her source, (pinktentacle.com):

authored by manga artist Shigeru Mizuki, [it] features a collection of cutaway diagrams showing the anatomy of 85 traditional monsters from Japanese folklore (which also appear in Mizuki’s GeGeGe no Kitarō anime/manga). 

I'm incredibly amused by the preview entries. But it only makes sense ... the only thing that rivals the Japanese aesthetic for bizarre creatures is the old D&D Monster Manual. I wonder if there's a correlation there ... perhaps Gygax and crew consumed too much wasabi at some point, and it pickled their brains. That would explain the Rust Monster, wouldn't it?

For the record, the Kijimunaa is much cuter in Devil Survivor. (Really, what would a Shin Megami game be without fairy-demons?)

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Fun OCW Classes at ND

Did you know Notre Dame has a free, non-credited, online class in Creole Language and Culture? Or one on Reinveting the Fairy Tale?  Crime, Heredity and Insanity in American History could be fun, too.

I find these ... intriguing.

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IU Press 1-day sale: 60% off

Wow, three posts in one day.  (Am I having trouble focusing at work? Why yes -- yes, I am.)

Kaiju very kindly sent this over a little while ago:

IU Press is having a 60th anniversary sale tomorrow (the 17th). All regularly-priced books, journals, and DVDs are 60% off regular price. Shipping is free over $25. Use the code SIXTY at checkout.

 

http://iupress.typepad.com/blog/2010/02/one-week-until-our-60th-anniversary-online-sale.html

If you click on the link to their Books section at the left of that page, you can see the various categories -- say, for example, Myth and Folklore...

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Airship pirates, back to work, and the Queen of Crows

Will was right. There is something amusing about blasting Abney Park's Aether Shanties while trying to navigate the winter roads of Northern Indiana. A pirate airship would definitely fare better in this weather than my Corolla.

Yesterday was the first day back to work. It does suck, not being able to take the pain meds during the day. Both for the obvious reasons and for the fuzziness and exhaustion that follow during the evening. Unfortunately I've been back in insomnia mode for the last two nights, as well, so evidently all that recuperating last week used up my sleep minutes. Bah.

In less grumpifying news, I mentioned in an earlier post that the fabulous Monica Valentinelli drafted me to do editing, typesetting, and the cover illustration for her Queen of Crows project, which has been great fun. I'm slowly plugging away at my end -- even more slowly now that I've been essentially out of commission for a week -- but there has been progress. (For those who are either new to EFI, or may have stumbled across this post in a fit of whimsy, QoC is a short story set in the world of Monica's very cool Violet War novel-in-progress, Argentum. I do recommend checking it out if you get a chance.)

Artist Leanne Buckley is providing the character art for the QoC character, so I'm really looking forward to seeing how it matches up to the image evoked by Monica's writing. (M. herself seems thrilled with what she's seen so far.)  More details will follow soon on that project -- but in the meantime, here's a peek at the cover I did for the story (click to embiggen):

 

Mind you, I'll be the first to confess I'm more of a writer/editor/typesetter/webmonkey than a graphic designer.  I do like to play with Adobe programs, though, and this was a lot of fun, so I'm glad she talked me into it. I think it turned out pretty well (for an amateur!). 

Finally, this blog will be getting an overhaul in the next few weeks if I have time. There is much reorganizing and re-templating to be done. (I believe the Violet War site will see its revision first, though, so I'll post here when Monica has the new site up and running.)

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